


What Feels Like Home

by Dots



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Homesickness, M/M, Oneshot, Pining, Pre-Slash, Sneaking Out, the intimacy of mutual underlying feelings of missing home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:48:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28021173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dots/pseuds/Dots
Summary: One late night when Noctis can't sleep, he invites Prompto on a walk to a haven—easing them both into forgetting how much they miss home.
Relationships: Prompto Argentum/Noctis Lucis Caelum
Kudos: 18





	What Feels Like Home

One late night, Noctis was restless.

He was laying on the couch in their caravan, scrolling through his apps and sometimes eyeing Prompto curled up on the floor. He was awake too, as he usually was that time of night, also on his phone sitting in a sustained silence.

Noctis was more than ready to pass out where he lied, but recently all the unfamiliarity had started to force him conscious. He didn’t know if it was because home was more out of reach than before, but he’d try and trick himself out of it—the couch wasn’t his, but it was the same color as the one in his bedroom. The blanket he had was scratchy, but they’d brought it along from a convenience store near the Citadel. The whir of the air conditioning almost had the same rattling as when the unit in his apartment had broken, and that would be enough to lull him to sleep some nights.

But _other_ nights, like this one, all that kept him awake. It made his chest feel tight, and trying to distract himself only made him feel guilty. Like he owed his home his thoughts, no matter how much it hurt. Which was stupid because he thought about the city all the time anyway, and he really just needed to get out of his own headspace for a while.

Gladio and Ignis were asleep on the beds in the back. Noctis chewed at his lip, knowing he wasn’t gonna be humored if he told Ignis his brain wanted to get up and wander around, at least not this late at night. So with a mission to be quiet, he texted Prompto.

_**Noct:** hey _

_**Noct:** u wanna sneak out_

Noctis watched and waited, until Prompto raised his eyebrows with a playful look in his eye. He looked over at Noctis, took a quick glance to Gladio and Ignis, and then mouthed _‘Where?’_

Noctis returned to his phone.

_**Noct:** out _

_**Noct:** maybe to the haven thats close idk _

When he looked up and was met with a series of enthusiastic nods, the pair carefully toed on some shoes and set out into the desert night. Noctis didn’t know if he looked as relieved as he felt, but at least Prompto looked eager to leave; which wasn’t really surprising.

Noctis rolled his shoulders back and Prompto stretched his arms over his head, both careful not to make much noise before they were out of earshot. They snuck around the back of the caravan and stuck to the edge of Hammerhead, until the lazy path leading to the haven came into view.

“Wait—” Prompto said, and pointed to the convenience store. “You wanna get sodas?”

So they backtracked and bought two bottles, and then trudged out onto the sand. Most of the walk was protected, the lights from Hammerhead keeping daemons well at bay, and otherwise the haven was close enough they could sprint to safety.

“Y’know, this isn’t exactly ‘sneaking out,’” Prompto commented as they climbed up the side. “We’re both, like, adults—we’re allowed to go on walks.”

“We were sneaking weren’t we?” Noctis walked to the edge of the haven, facing away from Hammerhead with only the glow of the runes to light the way. He sat down with his legs dangling off the side, and Prompto joined him. “I think it counts.”

Prompto nudged him with his shoulder. “You’re such a wannabe!”

Noctis grunted in reply, twisting the cap off his soda to take a swing. Prompto kept his drink unopened in his hands, holding it relaxed between his legs and looking like he still wanted to say something. He always had this hesitation before he spoke, and Noctis wasn’t sure what to do except wait.

“I’m glad you asked though,” Prompto eventually said. “I like it here, but the air tastes like gasoline. It gives me headaches.” Noctis watched him rub his thumb against the glass, little droplets of condensation smudging away. “Even if it’s just a little distance, it helps to—clear out the lungs, you feel me?”

“Yeah,” Noctis agreed. “It’s different from the city.”

They talked about that often—how beyond the wall everything moved slower, or smelled mustier, or left them a little more hungry. Prompto would get a nostalgic look on his face every time, one that made Noctis wish he could take him back home for a while. They were both homesick, and it was getting worse every night.

Prompto straightened his legs out in front of him, lingering midair. “Couldn’t see the stars this well in the city, at least.”

“Couldn’t see this many rocks, either.”

Prompto sighed out a laugh. “Yeah. Lotsa rocks.” He finally twisted the cap off his soda, but only peered down into his bottle. He waited a few moments before taking his first sip. “You think people pick favorites?”

Noctis paused. “I guess.”

“That’s a rock, right? I think it is.” Prompto gestured into the darkness with his foot. “I’m gonna make that my favorite.”

Noctis squinted, barely making out the lump that he was _pretty_ sure Prompto was talking about. Medium sized with a jagged top, only visible with the backdrop of the stars.

“Uh huh. Your rock,” Noctis said. After a moment of thought, he smirked. “Name it in your honor. First crownsguard with a rock.”

Prompto whipped his head around with an exaggerated expression. A smile, hiding behind fake shock. “All I’ve done for you and I get a _rock_?”

“A rock’s pretty unique. You could get a statue but you wouldn’t be the first.” Noctis was only teasing him (mostly, because a rock of honor would actually be funny as hell), but Prompto put a look of consideration on his face and stared back out into the night.

“I mean if you’re _offering_... Okay, maybe not a statue, that's kinda gaudy.” Prompto put his fingers out in front of him, making a rectangle with his thumbs and indexes. “But maybe a plaque? That’d be cool I think.”

“How’s a plaque better than a rock?”

He huffed. “At least there’s effort in a plaque! It’s about intention, Noct.”

“There’s effort in a statue.” Noctis took another sip, smiling at Prompto’s scowl that looked too much like a pout to be intimidating.

“A statue’s still a rock, ya know.”

They both looked back into the desert. The light of the haven let them see a little further, some silhouettes of the larger boulders and outlines of abandoned cars. It was vast, and empty, and Noctis didn’t like how much space there was.

“How’d you think these all got here?” Prompto asked in the silence, the only sound for what felt like should be miles. Even with civilization right behind them, everything felt disconnected. “The rocks, I mean.”

Noctis shrugged. “No idea. Maybe Titan put them down, or something.” With a frown, he glanced at the pebbles on the ground, just barely visible from the haven's light. He wouldn't call himself an expert on _rock migration_ , but he didn’t have a clue anyway.

“Hmm.” Prompto kicked his feet back and forth, heels occasionally bouncing off the edge of the rock on his downswing. Something was working behind his eyes, whatever implausible idea he was trying to come up with.

“Maybe this used to be a—a big old lake,” Prompto began, making a wide motion with his free hand. “Way back before the meteor fell. And Titan was skipping stones across the surface, just in his downtime, as ya do. And the ones that sunk to the bottom are these big ones here.” He laughed to himself. “And then erosion and stuff.”

Noctis grinned, a little full of himself that he was right. But Prompto’s gaze was far off in the distance, on the boulder he’d picked out. Probably thinking about how many skips it got until it sank. Noctis only grinned wider.

“Wonder what those fish would’ve looked like.”

Prompto laughed again, cheerful and loud. “Maybe they would’ve been massive! Like a black bass that’s the size of three Gladio’s.” He sniffed, and rubbed under his nose. “Big buff fishy.”

They both took drinks of their soda, more in sync this time, ignoring how the caffeine was going to keep them up all night. It was too late to go back anyway, and Noctis was sure they were both thinking it’d be nice to stay up together. It was like how they used to, long school nights in Noctis’s apartment.

Though that was hard to think about.

Before long they fell into a quiet, but neither of them minded—silence was comfortable. It was adjusted, and typical, and nice knowing there wasn’t space that needed to be filled. Noctis didn’t remember when just Prompto became enough, but it had been long before they left Insomnia.

“You know how some things are more… kinda more magical at night? Like it’s special in the moment,” Prompto asked, sounding a little wistful. Noctis nodded, and he went on. “I think I’m having that with these stupid rocks. I don’t know if I’m gonna... _feel_ so much about them in the morning. But I sure do now.”

Noctis swirled the soda in his bottle. He wasn’t even sure he was gonna remember which rock was Prompto’s favorite through his next sleep cycle. Prompto would probably think that would make it all the more special, though.

“Take a picture,” Noctis suggested, gesturing to the rock with his chin. Prompto shook his head.

“I’ve only got my phone with me, it’s no good in the dark.”

“We can use my flashlight.”

Prompto puffed air into his cheeks. “It’s gonna look super shitty still.” He glanced between Noctis and the rock, and made a sound that sounded like giving in. “I guess that could be the charm.”

“You’d be the expert,” Noctis joked, and Prompto punched him in the arm.

They pulled out their phones (no missed texts, Noctis noticed, which wouldn’t have stopped him anyway) and Prompto faced his rock. He tried it with flash first, and was left glaring at his phone with an unsatisfied grunt. Next Prompto tried without any light, and laughed when he got a whole load of darkness with a hazy blue glow.

“Try shining your flashlight over there but not, like, right on it,” directed Prompto, adjusting his sitting until he was on his knees. “Something might cast a cool shadow and then it’ll look… better.”

Noctis turned on his light and pointed it out into the desert, managing to fall right onto a spiny and thin daemon. It was watching them with beady eyes, and probably had been for a while.

“Wah?!” Prompto jolted back, barely not tipping his soda.

“Oh, gross.”

It skittered around under Noctis’s flashlight, but by the looks of it, it was alone. Since they were on a haven it couldn’t bother them, but it could still stare and wait.

“I hate these things…” Prompto muttered, putting his phone down in his lap. Noctis glared down at it, because yeah, they sucked. They were ugly and they were annoying, and this one was well on its way to being a night ruiner.

The daemon leapt from the light and Noctis followed it, watching it wince when the shine flashed in its eye. It’d only gotten closer to them when it jumped, and with a growing pit in his stomach Noctis realized it was looking for a chance.

That being said, it was pretty pathetic looking. Noctis couldn’t entirely tell from where he sat, but it might’ve been an imp. They’d taken out dozens of those without so much as a scratch. And it wasn’t even being loud, apart from the occasional scamper.

Pretty easy to say it wasn’t a threat, and it wouldn’t bother them unless they got off. Noctis could put out the flashlight and pretend it wasn’t there, or even better, remember that it was there and use it as an excuse later. Staying out with Prompto later than he should’ve was just inevitable, cause there was a daemon out and it was gross looking.

“Looks like we’re stuck here ‘till sunrise,” Noctis said idly, still following the daemon with his flashlight. It snarled, which was new, but it wasn’t anything to be bothered by.

“Huh?” Prompto gave him a funny look. “No way, we can totally take that guy. He’s just a small one.”

Noctis tried to sound more sarcastic, slowly tilting his head to the side. “Nope,” he said. “Pretty sure we’re stuck.”

Prompto took a solid moment of registering, before his crooked grin caught on. He settled into his spot, relaxing his legs back out in front of him and grabbed the soda from his side.

“Okay, buddy. Stuck it is.”

Eventually, the daemon scrambled away into a far off pipe, just when the sky started fading from black to purple. Noctis barely noticed, infinitely more focused on Prompto’s new and several failed attempts at taking a picture of his boulder. The choice he settled on was one where the sun was up just enough to let the photo recognize a shape in the distance. It was almost cool, even if it was more the colors that looked nice than the picture itself.

Though as more light spread through the desert and the boulder came into view, Prompto adamantly didn’t try for a better shot. It wasn’t shaped like either of them expected, or imagined, and Prompto said that made the picture more special.

And Noctis, who looked up at Prompto thinking he had to have been exhausted to get affected by the vague idea of a rock, guessed he thought so too.

When their excuse was going to run dry and the sun was over the horizon, there ended a restless night. But Noctis thought, just to himself, that it’d probably ended a while ago. And as they walked off the haven and Noctis was feeling lighter than he had in days, he realized just how much home Prompto brought with him.

And how much he wanted to take him there.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!! 
> 
> tumblr: [honeydots](https://honeydots.tumblr.com/)  
> twitter: [honey_dots](https://twitter.com/honey_dots)


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